GoKawiilThe natural world as we know it represents only a fraction of what might exist. Based on this idea, AI BioDesign was born: a scientific project that combines artificial intelligence and large-scale laboratory experiments to design and test new molecules and biological functions that are not found in nature but are physically and chemically possible.
In doing so, the researchers are aiming to create databases, models, and tools that could serve as “seeds” for developing the medicines and technologies of the future. The authors envision, for example, new drugs to treat cancer and neurodegenerative diseases or enzymes capable of breaking down plastics in the ocean.
Proteins that do not exist in nature but are technically possible can be designed and constructed using AI. ILLUSTRATION: Ian C. Haydon / UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design
The initiative is led by the Allen Institute, a biomedical research nonprofit in Seattle, along with the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Among the scientists leading the charge is David Baker, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in computational protein design.
For much of the history of biology, scientists have studied the solutions forged by billions of years of evolution. Exploring possibilities that nature never produced is a fundamentally new approach. And as technology makes this now possible, one that a leaders of the field even compares the potential of these methods to historic transformations such as industrialization, electrification, and the digital revolution.
However, delving into completely novel regions of biology also inevitably leads to difficult questions. WIRED en Español spoke with David Baker, chief scientific officer at AI BioDesign, to address this and other topics.